Ever wanted to get in the doughnut business? Wichita couple is ready to retire and sell
.jpg "Paradise Donut owners Hervey and Marilyn Wright are ready to retire and spend more time with their grandsons Hudson, left, and Cooper, second from right.")
If you’ve ever dreamed of getting into the doughnut business, a local couple has a deal for you.
Marilyn and Hervey Wright, who own two Paradise Donut shops in Wichita, say they are ready to retire, and they’re now looking for a buyer. The couple has shops both at 10607 W. Maple and downtown at 612 E. Douglas.
They want to spend more time with their young grandsons, ages 2 and 4, but the boys and their parents live in Ashland, so the Wrights are planning to move there.
Ideally, they said, a young couple would want to buy the business and keep it going. The shop’s key employees — the longtime doughnut makers who work overnight shifts — want to stay on, and the couple is also willing to train new owners who aren’t familiar with the business.
They won’t, however, just close up shop and walk away.
“If somebody has no experience, we’re hoping we can help guide them through,” Hervey said. “We want this to continue on because we’ve spent a lot of time building this up, and we have some good clientele. We’ve got lots of competition. We’ve got Dunkin’ Donuts everywhere and all the other shops, but we continue to grow. So we’re doing something right.”
Paradise Donut stores are run with licensing agreements issued by the Tulsa-based company, meaning that owners must use the Paradise-provided recipes and ingredients when making their doughnuts but are otherwise free to do what they want with the stores. The Wrights added coffee, breakfast burritos and sausage rolls, but they think their large west-side store would be a perfect place for someone to add lunch service.
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Wichita’s first Paradise Donuts opened in 2010 at 3107 W. Central and was owned by Steve Trask. The Wrights opened their west-side shop in 2014 and eventually took over Trask’s store as well. They closed the Central location in 2018 and moved it to 612 E. Douglas, right across the street from Naftzger Park downtown. The Wrights lease both buildings.
They settled on their retirement plan in 2020 and were preparing to put the business on the market when the pandemic hit, so they put their plan on hold.
Business was good during the pandemic, and people who were stuck at home took full advantage of the west-side shop’s’ drive-through window, the couple said. At times, the line would be backed up all the way to the street.
The biggest advantage a buyer would have, the Wrights said, is that they’d inherit a strong customer base. The stores have lots of regulars and provide large orders for churches, schools and businesses all over town.
Anyone interested in talking with the Wright’s about taking over the business can call Marilyn at 316-648-8240.
This story was originally published May 25, 2022 at 10:32 AM.
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